Professional Development

Professional development is essential for educators to stay informed of new research and practices in the field of education. Access to resources and development opportunities will improve many aspects of the teaching and learning experience and students will be provided with the benefits that lead to academic success.

Conventions and classes provide opportunities to discuss relevant issues and concerns while creating connections with experts in the field and the art education community.  These experiences encourage personal growth and reevaluation of current methods and philosophies.

Staying informed of the opportunities available to art educators and advocating for personal development is also important. The National Art Education Association provides professional development resources for visual arts education and organizes events and conventions that work to promote, develop and connect art educators. Becoming a member of an established professional community will allow you to stay informed about a variety of different professional development opportunities.

Developing Critical Thinking & Creative Problem Solving Skills in the Art Room

Critical thinking and creative problem solving skills are developed in the art room when students create artwork. Art projects introduce students to new materials and require them to make decisions when progressing through different steps. Experimentation and flexibility are often required and students are pushed to discover what techniques will be the most successful.

Creating the illusion of realism and perspective also requires a great deal of attention and problem solving. Gaining the ability to carefully observe where a light source originates, the shadows it creates, and how to render that information with different media also requires critical thinking and creative problem solving skills.

Students are also making decisions regarding what they think and how they feel about different visual imagery. They encounter ideas portrayed from multiple perspectives and are encouraged to be reflective and understand artwork deeply. Students learn to recognize and express the emotions of others, developing empathy and compassion and understanding how context impacts artwork.

2nd Grade Illuminated Letters & 1st Grade Paper Weaving

Technology in the Art Room

Technology has made a significant impact on education and how teaching and communicating ideas can be approached. Generating interest and focusing attention on lessons can be achieved more effectively by incorporating media that appeals to students different learning styles.

Projectors can clearly display large digital images and are great for focusing student attention on presentations. Incorporating audio and video will also add to the interest level in the classroom. The Internet provides an impressive array of materials to increase student learning and there are many resources available to educators.

 Demonstrating art processes to large classes can be challenging. Gathering students around a table can lead to many difficulties with attention and typically space is limited. Document cameras are a great resource for educators and can display everything from printed material to painting techniques without disruption.

Student access to computers is also a great addition to the art room. Digital art and design work is a necessary component of any art curriculum and it is important to provide students with current technology to experiment with creatively. There are many great drawing and art history aps for iPads and students could use them easily without the need for additional space or the transition time that is involved with traditional computer labs.

Art Education & Art Advocacy

If you are passionate about art and education, you will naturally recognize the importance of your role in both your school and community as an art advocate. Spending time to create visual interest in your classroom, the school and your community, is an important role of an art educator and there are many benefits involved with visually interesting learning environments.

Inspiring and coordinating your students to work collaboratively on a school mural or mosaic can add something unique to your building and help create a positive learning environment, along with bringing recognition to both your students and the art department. Engaging students with community partners can also provide opportunities for real world learning situations, while creating public artwork that benefits the community. Encouraging these activities is also a great opportunity for students to take part in student led projects, where they handle the majority of the design and execution while the educator acts primarily as a facilitator.

More 3rd & 4th grade Typography Projects

Typography Animals & Self Portraits

Here are the images from the two typography lessons I am finishing up. The third grade created animals and the fourth grade developed self-portraits. The first few images are the examples I made for the students but I think their work turned our great. The other groups will finish tomorrow and I will add a couple more examples.

Paul Klee Inspired Birds

Here are the images from the kindergarten students. They completed a lesson about Paul Klee and his work involving birds. The students used simple shapes to create birds and added water color to complete their background.

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Assessments in the Art Room

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            An assessment is an important tool and serves as an indication of the abilities of both the instructor and the student. The ability of a student to successfully meet the requirements of a lesson tends to be a reflection of how clearly the educator is presenting and communicating the objectives. There are a variety of factors that will impact the final outcome of an art project and an assessment will provide the opportunity for students to evaluate where they might have struggled and educators to look for reoccurring indications of confusion or other problems.

Self-assessments provide an opportunity for students to offer their perspective and feedback on projects. A self-assessment should be clear, short and simple. Providing a column for the student to evaluate their own work, another for your evaluations, and another for comments will encourage communication between students and teachers. This is a great way to determine what improvements you might want to make to your lessons and what projects are more engaging for students.